Think like a publisher

I’m super excited to let You all know that our first, very own app is now available in the App Store on iTunes. Normally I’m not soliciting downloads and ratings but in this case I’ll make an exception – If You like what You see please go to…

…and download the app for free and give us a rating in the store (this will help us tremendously)

The app was build from scratch – with my bare hands – using Adobe tools such as InDesign PublishingSuite and so on… I could never have done this without being a subscriber to the Adobe Creative Cloud which has opened up completely new playgrounds for me.

Much has been said – and is still being said – about think like a publisher and this project is my take on it. I believe that the new technologies and new-media has given each and everyone of us a golden opportunity to craft and distribute our own story.

White Noise White Shores

This multi-media project is celebrating a pure, naive and innocent notion of beauty that seems to be almost forgotten these days. The project was initiated by me and my partner – 3D & CGI artist Thorsten Jasper Weese | recom. It consists of still images, video and (digitall + IRL) sculpture… Technically the process is not overly complicated and consists mainly of photography + 3D modeling + video (editing)

At the actual shooting, 40-50 still frames captured of Marie @ Iconic Management were uploaded into the free AutoDesk 123D Catch software that allows anyone with an internet connection to create real 3D models of virtually any object. The software stitches the images together and produces a 3D model in about 30 mins.

This 3D model was then “sculpted by hand” in Sculptris to refine and enhance the digital sculpturel. The next step was to hand the model over to Thorsten and his team at Recom-CGI for processing and editing. The camera flight and the rendering for the ANIMATION is done inf VREDprofessional and the passes were comped in NUKE and got little FX in After Effects. The team at Recom rendered a number of stills, video and 3D models which were then brought back to me for final editing in Premiere and After Effects.

The stills, based on the digitized Marie, done with 123D Catch, is rendered with the realtime rendertool VREDprofessional as a Wireframe with an Flipflor car paint to achieve a breakable lightweight feel.

rock glamour –

rock glamour – I’m always thrilled to have the opportunity to direct the visual communication for luxury fashion label Stephan Boya. This season we produced a video + some stills + a small Instagram campaign…

Fashion Model Michaela Bodenmiller

… once again we had the pleasure of having beautiful model Michaela Bodenmiller on set for luxury label Stephan Boya and once again the resulting images and video is an attempt to stay focused on the core of the label – hip, chic, young and urban.

The One Channel launch brings a well needed facelift to Your channel, with a large image on top of the page that brings a more modern and visual look to the page. You can now also organize Your material better with possibilities to feature videos based on tags, popularity, time of upload and so on.

“Take greater control over how you present your videos and playlists on your channel. You can now curate content — your own or others’ — into highly visible sections for your fans to discover what to watch. With multiple layouts for videos and playlists, you can arrange your channel to best highlight your content.”

When a non-subscriber chances upon Your channel You have the option of upload a tease video that ideally will tell them more about Your channel and pull them in.

But the biggest news is undoubtely the fact that the page is now optimized to look good on any device, desktop, mobile, tablet and even TV (is that the upcoming Google TV?)

“People watch your channel everywhere, on their couches, at their desks, on the bus. You need to look your best on all kinds of screens. Now your channel art will scale beautifully to any size screen, and your social and merchandise links will be available on any device with a browser.”

Hahnemuhle Paper Fashion

Fashion designer Michael Sontag doesn’t sketch, draw or otherwise put his ideas down on paper before getting to work on his designs. Instead he intuitively and very much hands-on starts draping the fabric directly on his model – like a sculptor working with steel, glass or stone.

It’s his hands that are doing the work, directly manipulating the raw materials. The shapes are born directly from underneath his hands moving over a body and it’s this approach that leads to the fluidity, intimacy and movement of his pieces.
In this collaborative project Hahnemühle Fine Art Paper serves as his raw material. Folding, draping, moulding and ripping the paper he is creating instant and very short lived designs that only live long enough to be recorded on a computer chip in a camera.
It’s a very poetic mix of fashion, performance and semi-scientific research.

DIGITAL – WORK, PROCESS & IMAGINATIONThis performance and dance-like piece is documented and digitalized by fashion photographer Per Zennstrom. Even though the resulting sculptural shapes are physical objects consisting of real paper they will only live for an instant, barely enough to be recorded and preserved in digital form before they are gone.
The digital output of Michael Sontags work is then presented on stage at Photokina, in theform of a fashion photo-shooting/performance which in many ways is a digital “reflection” and re-enactment of the first analogue session.

PAPER – THE END
As the process and performance nears the end the resulting images are again migrating back to the original media – paper. Large format prints from the photo shooting will be printed out on printers in plain view of the visitors…

luxury cashmere – fashion film

Again, I was very happy to have the opportunity to work with fashion label Stephan Boya. Below some of my reflections on the process of working with the same client over a longer period of time and what it takes to stay on target.

“For some time now I have been intimately involved with the luxury cashmere fashion label Stephan Boya in regards to their imagery, both when it comes to stills and video. For this season we choose to re-enlist Michaela Bodenmiller, who we had shot a few seasons ago.

As always, for Stephan Boya, the goal was to convey a sense of effortless, urban chic, coupled with a really high energy level. A dear friend of mine once told me that the trick is “always tell the same story, but every time You have to tell it in a different way”

To raise the energy level the short was set to a drum’n bass track, at 170 bpm.

For this particular shooting I choose to try out the brand new Nikon D800 and I have to say that I’m impressed to say the least. An unbeatable price point coupled with a “near middle format feeling” + the long sought full-HD video capabilities (at up to 60 fps.) In effect, I was so impressed that I actually went ahead and bought one. I will soon post a more thorough review of this camera. Meanwhile here is the an excellent resource Digital Photography Review and their take.